The optical properties of the human eye are far from being perfect as time-depending aberrations degrade the performances of our optical system. The most uncomfortable visual defects for the patient can be -quite well- compensated by spectacles. However, the visual distortions (including those of higher orders) represent a severe limitation for in vivo retinal imaging, important for the diagnosis of numerous retinal diseases.
In the beginning of the 90th, the implementation of Adaptive Optics in telescope systems allowed the Astronomer to improve the image resolution of one order of magnitude in the observation of stars. The similar situation of Astronomer and Ophthalmologist (time varying aberrations, need for a 10-fold gain in resolution min.) has helped to raise the idea applying Adaptive Optics in the field of Ophthalmology.
Our Adaptive Optics 2D setup for ophthalmic imaging is currently under clinical evaluation at the 15/20 hospital. This system allows the Ophthalmologist to obtain high-resolution surface retinal images in healthy subjects and more recently as well in patients. The testing of a second prototype (3D) at the Paris Observatory will be finished in the near future. It will provide Ophthalmologists with surfacic and tomographic ultra high-resolution images of the retina in eyes for better understanding of underlying disease pathomechanisms and evaluation of novel treatment approaches.